What are you listening 2 now?

Started by Gurn Blanston, September 23, 2019, 05:45:22 AM

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Symphonic Addict

#118180
Quote from: foxandpeng on October 14, 2024, 03:32:34 PMRobert Still
The Four String Quartets
Villiers Quartet
Naxos


Never heard Still's music, but despite a feeling that he is looking backwards rather than forwards at first, this is enjoyable and tuneful music, which evolves.

The first two quartets gave me the better impressions. The next two were a tad serious and rigurous to my taste. The playing of that ensemble didn't help much either. I remember liking his symphonies 3 and 4 much more (on Lyrita).
The current annihilation of a people on this planet (you know which one it is) is the most documented and at the same time the most preposterously denied.

JBS

From the Naxos Sins of Old Age set


The previous eight* CDs were entirely solo piano pieces. With this CD we reach the vocal pieces, for various combinations of voice, some with piano, some with organ, some a capella, and at least two (Song of the Democratic Hunters and Funeral Song for Meyerbeer**) with drums. There are still some solo piano works in this and the remaining CDs, but most are very short (under one minute) sketches preserved in manuscript and never recorded before. The songs cover a wide range of moods, from drinking songs to Catholic motets.


*two of the first six installments were released as double CDs, hence this appearing as the 7th in the series.

**composed the morning of Meyerbeer's funeral. The liner notes use it as the occasion to present a Rossinian acerbicism. Meyerbeer's nephew composed a funeral march in memory of his uncle. Rossini commented that it would have been better if the nephew had died, and Meyerbeer had composed a funeral march.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Brian

Quote from: André on October 14, 2024, 05:07:42 PMThe PC can be dispensed with. It's a pleasant enough work, but quite unoriginal - therefore un-Britten like. The movements are Toccata, Waltz, Impromptu, and March. It sounds more like a suite for piano and orchestra than a traditional concerto. Live performance with Leif Ove Andsnes, the City of Birmingham orchestra under Paavo Järvi.
Aw, I love the piano concerto's glitter and pomp, and was glad to see it live early this year. (It definitely impresses a live audience.) It would be good to have it coupled on disc with Walton's orchestral variations on the theme from the Impromptu.

Daverz

Quote from: foxandpeng on October 14, 2024, 03:32:34 PMRobert Still
The Four String Quartets
Villiers Quartet
Naxos


Never heard Still's music, but despite a feeling that he is looking backwards rather than forwards at first, this is enjoyable and tuneful music, which evolves.

Symphonies may be more interesting:


steve ridgway

Scriabin: Trois Morceaux Op.52


steve ridgway

Schoenberg: Two Songs For Voice And Piano, Op. Posth.



I'm finding short piano pieces and songs quite pleasant 8).

steve ridgway

Penderecki: Sonata For Cello And Orchestra



Plenty of absorbing avant garde sounds for me here 8) .

steve ridgway

Ligeti: Der Sommer



More to my taste than a bit of Schnittke's film music that I skipped because it sounded like film music ;) .

steve ridgway

Schnittke: Music For Piano And Chamber Orchestra



This was more like it - a variety of interesting, separated sounds I could focus on listening to, like sitting in a forest, that eventually turned into a jazzy, rhythmical piece mercifully free of predictable melody 8) .

steve ridgway

Penderecki: String Quartet No. 1



I find myself entangled in a dense thicket of unmusical noises 8) .

Florestan

Quote from: JBS on October 14, 2024, 06:18:20 PMcomposed the morning of Meyerbeer's funeral. The liner notes use it as the occasion to present a Rossinian acerbicism. Meyerbeer's nephew composed a funeral march in memory of his uncle. Rossini commented that it would have been better if the nephew had died, and Meyerbeer had composed a funeral march.

A classic Rossinian wit.

In the same vein: a much younger composer told Giovanni Sgambati that he (the youth, that is) is going to compose a funeral march in Sgambati's honor when time comes. Replied Sgambati: "It'd be the only funeral in history where the audience booed and hissed."
"Ja, sehr komisch, hahaha,
ist die Sache, hahaha,
drum verzeihn Sie, hahaha,
wenn ich lache, hahaha! "

Tsaraslondon



A fascinating disc that could well become one of my discs of the year.

Review on Musicweb International
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas


Traverso

Boulez

No Bach today to open the day musically, but another great composer with a great B




Maestro267

Quote from: André on October 14, 2024, 05:07:42 PMThe PC can be dispensed with. It's a pleasant enough work, but quite unoriginal - therefore un-Britten like. The movements are Toccata, Waltz, Impromptu, and March. It sounds more like a suite for piano and orchestra than a traditional concerto. Live performance with Leif Ove Andsnes, the City of Birmingham orchestra under Paavo Järvi.

I don't think I've ever disagreed with a take more than this. Britten's Piano Concerto is one of the greatest such works of the 20th century. Prokofievian and Ravelian to its very core, full of vigour and life, and one of the great slow movements in the British literature.

AnotherSpin

Bach - 6 Suites a violoncello solo - Claire Giardelli


ritter

Quote from: Traverso on October 15, 2024, 03:32:24 AMBoulez

No Bach today to open the day musically, but another great composer with a great B




What a splendid idea!  :)

Here, listening to Boulez's Le Soleil des eaux and Figures-Doubles-Prismes, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, under the conductor (with soprano Phyllis  Bryn-Julson and the BBC Singers in the cantata).

From CD 2 of this set:

 « Et n'oubliez pas que le trombone est à Voltaire ce que l'optimisme est à la percussion. » 

Traverso


Todd

The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Madiel

#118199
Mozart: Mass in C, "Coronation" (K.317)



The title apparently relates to later usage, not the original purpose.

First listen didn't massively appeal but I was a bit distracted. Sorting out memories of Galicia... will try again thinking only of Canberra and Salzburg.

Edit: yes, definitely better when I'm actually paying some attention.

There's a really good restaurant in Vigo...
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